The Curious Case Of Demetris Robertson
Demetris Robertson is chasing a dream that’s hard for some to understand.
Yesterday, National Signing Day was two weeks in the book. The players sent in their faxes or e-faxes, the classes were evaluated, we talked about it, and then it was over. Well, not everything was over. Demetris Robertson, the five star athlete from Georgia, had still not made a decision and had developed a plan to take his recruitment and make it a bit longer.
To make a long story short, and understandable for those that don’t follow recruiting that closely, Demetris Robertson wants to go to Stanford, or at the very least, he wants to make a decision on where he will go to school and play football while having every school that he may possibly want to attend be a part of that decision. He didn’t have the necessary test scores to even begin to get into Stanford- but he wanted to try again as it was a goal of his. That meant he had to take the test again, and that took him past signing day.
Through it all, Robertson has made plans to visit other schools like Alabama and Georgia but even after a visit is “scheduled” he changed his mind and never made the visit.
Now, it appears, that Robertson has still not got the test score desired to attend Stanford, and he will try yet again. This means his recruitment will continue to drag along. The deadline for LOI’s is April 1st, but many people feel that he may never sign one and will instead sign federal aid papers for the school of his choosing.
It’s all very hard and upsetting for some fans to accept this kind of recruiting process. They want to cast stones in Robertson’s direction and label him a “flake,” or a “drama queen.” It seems very few people are excited about Demetris and his dream because of the timeline they have in their head, as compared to the actual timeline of what can be. Notre Dame fans in particular have been making derogatory statements such as those as well as stating that they wouldn’t want Stanford’s “sloppy seconds” even if Robertson would choose the Irish.
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These fans must have forgotten all the stories about the players Notre Dame has “snubbed” throughout the years and how they have played against the Irish (Stanford’s Kevin Hogan for one and Boston College’s Luke Kuechly as another). Or, perhaps, they have forgotten about the players Notre Dame has missed out on that have haunted them as well such as Reggie Bush. Make no mistake about it, Brian Kelly and Notre Dame want Robertson badly and they will indulge Robertson as much as possible until the decision has finally been made.
Robertson’s desire and determination to attend Stanford has been so great that there is a bit of a rumor floating that Stanford may actually make an exception in his scores to gain him entry into the school. So, this makes the entire episode an example in the ends justifying the means.
There are no real or new updates with Robertson- only the wait and the knowledge that at some point he will decide and whatever he decides he will play football somewhere in the fall. You may not like the way he has gone about this, but if you took a step back and really understood that he is doing this to chase a dream and not to chase headlines, you may actually end up admiring his iron-will to do what he thinks is best for him and what is his dream. It’s so stubborn and frustrating that you could honestly make comparisons to Notre Dame’s own dream chaser, Rudy.
Patience is a virtue and so is determination. While we may want a path that common ground, you have to admire trailblazing when it’s done for the right reasons.